


A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

by lar_laughs



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-21
Updated: 2010-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-13 22:30:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/142425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lar_laughs/pseuds/lar_laughs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dreams make themselves known in various ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

The dream was full of vivid colors, even though she had never thought of the beach as very colorful before. And how did she know she was in a dream in the middle of a dream? It was a question that Veronica began to ponder just as a skateboarder whizzed by, flinging up sand that didn’t hurt when it landed against her legs. That was how she knew, she supposed.

The boy stopped at a table full of pre-teens pretending they didn’t need to be in school. Families with small children were taking up all the space closer to the water but she was on a towel under the awning of a lifeguard station. It was the same spot her family had always come to spend a couple hours away from the world, but it had been years since she had come here.

“Honey, move over so there’s more room for the food. Looks like we have a little of everything.”

She turned around suddenly and smiled at her dad, free of the burn cream and bandages he’d been sporting an hour ago. “Sure, dad.” The words were in her voice but she hadn’t moved her lips. How cool was that!

A woman started to say something but the words were faint and hard to understand. Straining to capture them, she began to actually move off the towel. That was a mistake, even in this dream sequence, as she felt herself sliding off the towel and over a cliff she’d never noticed before. Was the erosion on the beach really getting this horrible?

“Wallace, catch your sister before she falls much further. We’re going to need more people to eat all this food.”

“Okay, dad, but she’s just going to ask for more hall passes,” came the grudging reply before a hand captured hers, abruptly stopping the long plummet into a foggy void.

She was back on the towel, surrounded by sand…and a lot of food. Not all of it looked like acceptable beach fare. Really, who brought corned beef and hash to places with sand? There were other dishes who looked a little more…gritty than they should.

“What a perfect day to spend together with our family.”

Veronica opened her mouth to explain to the fuzzy people around her that she didn’t really have a family right now. Instead, Wallace started flicking her ear and buzzing in an obnoxious way. Just when she reached up to slap the side of his head…she woke up and realized the buzzing wasn’t going away with everything else.

If the dream had seemed odd, her waking reality was even more so. Feeling bereft not just because of everything that had happened tonight but because tendrils of the dream still clung to her subconscious, reminding her how much she missed having a normal life – a normal family.

She was telling herself not to think about it when the familiar face on the other side of the door surprised her. “I was hoping it would be you…” As she held the screen door open, Wallace stepped past her and into a house that suddenly felt more like a home just because of his presence. “Have you seen your mom?”

“I just came from the hospital. She felt bad that you had to be all alone.”

Because he was still her friend, even though nothing else made sense because of the relationship surrounding them, she let him take her hand and lead her to the couch in the front room. When she sat down, she tried to pull him down next to her, but he shook his head and pushed at her shoulders until she laid down. He tried covering her with the blanket her mom had left there earlier, one of the few things she noticed the woman hadn’t taken with her. “No, not this. Go get the blue blanket on my bed.”

He knew the one she was talking about because she often cuddled up with it when she was trying to think up one of her many escapades. It had been a present from Lilly, now a constant reminder of sleepovers and midnight excursions away from snoring parents. Before Wallace could bring it out, she wadded up the other blanket and threw it in the corner where it could rot for all she cared. Later, she’d find a homeless person who might enjoy the warm cotton. She never wanted to see it ever again.

“You need to sleep some more,” he said as he sat the blanket over her. “I should have just let myself in but I didn’t want to freak you out when you woke up.”

Before he could say anything else, she blurted out, “I had a dream. We were at the beach.”

“Like, me and you?” His voice actually cracked as he started at the second head that was surely pushing out of her neck at that very moment. It was the only explanation for that look of horror.

“And my dad and your mom. You kept me from falling and your mom tried to feed us the oddest foods. You seemed fond of the brie and caviar on toast.”

When he laughed, she suddenly realized just how silly the dream had been. It had been such a nice dream, though. “Caviar? I’m pretty sure my mom has never bought the stuff. She’s much more of a macaroni and cheese connoisseur, no matter what she’s been making for your dad lately.”

“You know what the most annoying thing about you is?” she asked, not with bitterness since she was pretty sure big sisters were supposed to remind younger brothers what their worse traits were. “You concentrate on exactly the detail I care the least about. Don’t you get it? We were a…”

His smiled dimmed and then brightened as he realized what she couldn’t get herself to say. “You like macaroni and cheese, right?” She nodded, completely confused and very tired. “Then everything will be fine.”

It was nice to be able to believe him. Surely, everything would be better now. Her best friend’s killer had been caught, her father was going to be okay – and she might just get that family after all.


End file.
